Women Protest Exclusion at the Vatican
October 17, 2008
by Sheryl Lee
|
Like a social club with “Whites Only” posted over the entryway, the Catholic Church’s continued refusal to ordain women to the priesthood seems both archaic and atonishingly bigoted.
The New York Times reports that Catholic women marched on the Vatican on Wednesday, during a synod of 253 bishops from around the world, in order to protest women’s exclusion from the priesthood, but the Vatican doesn’t yet show any inclination to back down from centuries of gender-descrimination that holds the priesthood to be the sole province of men.
In May, the Vatican insisted that it is properly following Christian tradition by excluding women from the priesthood and issued a new warning that women taking part in ordinations will be excommunicated.
The Church has made good on that threat as recently as last Spring:
In March, the archbishop of St. Louis excommunicated three women — two Americans and a South African — for participating in a woman’s ordination. They were part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, which began in 2002.
A Catholic publication carried this story: “St. Louis archbishop excommunicates three for attempted women’s ordination”, identifying Archbishop Raymond Burke of the Archdiocese of St. Louis as the individual who excommunicated women who had taken part in an attempt to ordain women to the priesthood. “The archbishop said the excommunication was part of his ‘solemn duty’ to protect the faith and unity of the Church.” Prior to that, in August 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith excommunicated two women under similar circumstances. The consequences of excommunication include the following:
being barred from all parishes and institutions of the archdiocese, being forbidden to take ‘ministerial part’ in the celebration of Mass and being unable to administer or receive any sacraments. They also may not receive absolution from their sins, and they are forbidden to be buried in consecrated ground.
On the website of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, an article clarified the Church’s intent:
When the archbishop declares an excommunication, its purpose is meant to be healing, and a call for the person to reconsider the action and reconcile with the Catholic Church.
Archbishop Burke called on his congregation to pray for the excommunicated women.
At the synod in Rome this week, 253 bishops convened by the Pope met for the purposes of discussing “the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.” There were 25 women present at the synod as observers or experts, but none had a vote.
Aisha Taylor, the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference in the United States, spoke to the New York Times about the protest.
“The exclusion of women from the priesthood is a grave injustice in our church … (and) a blatant example of sexism,” she told reporters in Rome. “Even though leaders have come out saying no, and it’s over and over again, I do believe that cannot continue for too many decades.”
I was raised a Catholic – well, my mother attempted to raise me Catholic. I could not “get” those teachings and, after being confirmed at age 11, I never returned.
I still don’t “get” why women would even want to participate in a patriarchal religion that minimizes them, blames them for just about every kind of sin, has a history of torturing and burning them and basically ignores their needs. That church isn’t going to change with respects to women until it renounces patriarchy as the unnatural system that it is – like that will ever happen.
Yup, and if doesn’t work, parents can just start taking the kids to another church – hey, it’s all the same God, right? Balk and boycott, walk the talk – quite a system where men only get to be the intermediaries between the divine and the mundane.
Since I’m not a part of any religious organization, I find it difficult to understand why women would remain a part of a voluntary group that demeans them so. Religion is a choice. They should find a like-minded group of women and start their own church. If half of the congregation packs its bags and leaves, the message will be strong. Maybe we need “church shelters” for abused Catholic women. A place to go on Sunday mornings to escape.
I cannot bring myself to insult the Catholic church anymore than I can insult the institutions of Muslims and Jews. However, I do believe that religions move more slowly when it comes to radical change (which Catholicism believes women priests constitute), so you need to bring your point repeatedly, loudly, strongly and unwaveringly. I do believe women should be allowed to be priests and that the whole celibacy thang should be done away with. But traditions take a long time to change and we just have to keep at it in a respectful, determined way.
As a Catholic woman, I am disappointed to see The New Agenda getting into the common liberal practice of bashing the Catholic Church. Anti-Catholicism is an ugly bias that has no place here.
The Catholic Church maintains that because all twelve disciples chosen by Jesus were male that priests must be male. It’s a good argument, along with the fact that only the male disciples were present at the Last Supper. Jesus had women followers who are mentioned repeatedly in the Gospels: the sisters Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene. He also welcomed women to hear him speak, defended a woman who was to be stoned to death, defended women who were criticized, and healed women.
At the cross, only the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of Cleophas and one disciple, John, stood by Jesus during the terrible hours before death eventually came. After the Resurrection, the first person who saw Jesus was Mary Magdalene.
But not one of those women was at the Last Supper, and not one was chosen as a disciple, not even the mother of Jesus.
It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that all priests are male.
Women have always been very important to the Church and always will be. Those women who aren’t satisfied with Catholic teaching should find another religion rather than trying to change the Catholic Church.
The New Agenda should concern itself with political and economic issues that affect women, not with religious teachings that don’t harm women. It’s ironic to see this post complaining that women can’t be Catholic priests when I was just reading about Muslim “honor killings” of women who don’t toe the line, “honor killings” here in the US. That’s an issue of a religious teaching that truly harms women and by the way, I’m not aware that Islam allows women to become imams.
Maura and Kit…
I’m a Jew. I won’t step foot in a synagogue that is Orthodox because they separate women and men during services and they won’t let women serve as Rabbis and Cantors. Believe me, this issue isn’t just about Catholics…. it applies to the Hasidim and Orthodox Jews, it applies to Muslims, and anyone else who treats women as different, less than men.
It’s okay to criticize a religious group if they discriminate. In fact, it is the only way to make change.
If Barak Obama only puts men into cabinet positions, that’s OK because only men signed the Declaration of Independence and there were no women present at the Constitutional Congress? The role of women in society has changed since 1 BC. I don’t think it’s “bashing” a church to criticize them for not reflecting those changes.
I was raised Catholic, too. My mom went to convent school, and then studied to be a nurse (from age 17) in a Catholic hospital. At 71, she’s attends church regularly, and tithes, and feels guilty if she misses a “Holy Day of Obligation.” I stopped being Catholic in my little heart when a priest told me that animals can’t go to Heaven because they don’t have souls. This idea was both profoundly distressing and highly illogical to me. It’s been a long, slow march to atheism ever since.
Any institution that excludes anyone on the basis of race or gender is a worthy target of disdain and reproach.
I THOUGHT The New Agenda was for all women. Guess I was mistaken, no practicing non-dissenting Catholics need apply.
Kit, non-dissenting Catholic women are welcome here. But so are dissenting Catholic women. The New Agenda is a coalition of women, and it’s inevitable that we will disagree with each other at times. Within our own Founders’ group, there are women planning to vote for Obama and women who are planning to vote for McCain.
And one woman that I know of is planning to vote for McKinney, and one woman (who happens to be the blog editor), who will vote for none of the above, who has in fact already voted in her own federal election which was held Oct. 14th. I’m thrilled to tell you that her candidate is the most radically feminist candidate she’s ever known, that she is House Leader for her party, the New Democrats, which is identified as Canada’s “labour party”, and which ran 33 percent female candidates in winnable ridings (more than any other party) in this election.
Great comment Kit,
I was a surprised to see The New Agenda participating in the popular American pass time of Catholic bashing. The Catholic faith is one that holds women in the highest esteem. Walk through any Roman Catholic neighborhood and you will see statues of the Blessed Mother in the picture windows, far more even than any representation of Jesus. How many religions pray to a woman?
Anyone ever heard of the Hail Mary? One of the worlds most beloved and revered women of the last century was Mother Teressa. I believe that the spiritual fulfilment she enjoyed as a nun far exeeded that which see would have experienced as a priest or even a pope. Women are respected and protected in Catholic countrys. They are the very conner stone of the family. No honor killings exist in catholic country’s and a women is not valued as half a person like she is in any country with an Islamic judicial system. Catholic country’s have elevated women to higher levels of their governments than most non Catholic countrys. And I really doubt the the outragious attacks that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin endured and are still enduring would ever exist, far less be so popular, in a Catholic country. But what does that have to do with the Catholic church? Everything. Values and tradition that create a safe and hospitipal environment for women have been spread globally by the Catholic church. Anyone can question insult or blaspheme the Catholic church with out fearing for their life. So lets not be as reckessly naive as the Obamabots.
There is aways room for improvement in the Catholic church and always opportunity for it to take place. It just takes time. Tradition is a hard rock to break. But the tradition and the protection of a powerful Catholic church is what stands between us free women and the Burka.
Juliette,
What we try to do (in addition to speaking out about sexism and promoting our platform of women’s issues) is to write about “current events” surrounding women’s issues. When we read in the popular press about news or events impacting women, we try to report on as many as we can. This does not mean in every case that we have a point of view. We just want to be a place for our members to stop by each day to get a current event synopsis on some issues impacting women. This post is mostly a synopsis of a NYT article – sorry for any offense.
Amy
No offence taken Amy and thanks for the responce.
“Still a big fan of the New Agenda.
Just wanted to add to my defence of the Catholic Church:
The dinner that was held in Honor of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the American Friends Service Committee, The Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker United Nations Office, Religions for peace and the World Council of Churchs, was strongly opposed and protested by the Catholic League. The Catholic League orginized a rally to protest the dinner honoring Ahmadinejad while other Christian orginizations honored the man who has aided and supported torture and murder of women, Christians, Jews and homo sexuals for any or no reason at all.
I would reccommend to anyone truly interested in feminism and the Catholic Church reading Pope John Paul II’ s apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (Latin for the Dignity of Women).
nutcracker…
Great info. I like your site…
Leave your Response
Supporting women.
Ending sexism.
Finding common ground.
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Blogroll
Find the New Agenda Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...